UNHAPPY CUSTOMERS – Meredith Carter brought a complaint against Daryl Feitz, manager of the Auto Smart, LLC dealership in Hyannis. On May 21, the licensing authority suspended the dealership’s license for 10 days.

Ten-day suspension in effect

The licensing authority suspended a used car dealer’s license this week after finding his customer relations “extremely poor” and that he failed to follow reporting regulations.

The 10-day suspension for Auto Smart LLC of Yarmouth Road in Hyannis and its manager, Daryl Fietz, began May 22.

Auto Smart customers Meredith Carter and Judith Eldredge each had complained to the authority that Auto Smart had failed to return their deposits in a timely manner.

“He is dealing with people who may or may not understand the law,” consumer affairs supervisor Richard Scali said. “I think Mr. Fietz takes advantage of that.”

Eldredge’s case was the less complicated of the two. She said she had given Auto Smart a deposit for a used car that she returned because of mechanical and other issues, but had to fight Fietz to get her deposit back. After some wrangling, Fietz paid her back during a previous licensing authority meeting, but the board delayed action on the complaint until it heard Carter’s.

Carter said she had put a $1,500 deposit on a vehicle at Auto Smart, then found it necessary to ask for $1,000 of that amount back in $500 segments. Fietz gave her the money and, she said she thought, continued to hold her vehicle.

Later, Carter said, Fietz told her the car was unavailable and offered her another vehicle. Carter said that vehicle had a number of problems and wanted her final $500 returned.

Speaking for himself and through attorney Peter Freeman, Fietz said he gone out of his way to accommodate Carter, who he said had problems pulling together financing for the deal. He let her use the second vehicle on his dealer plates, a step that raised eyebrows this week because it appeared to violate the allowable timeframe for such an arrangement.

“I am disturbed at the method and manner of the whole transaction,” member Gene Burman said.

Freeman said his client acknowledged that he had been “remiss” on some of his paperwork, but he stressed that Fietz was “trying to help the customer… This is a very two-sided situation.”